drag queen

noun

plural drag queens

: a person and especially a man who performs as an entertainer in usually female drag (see drag entry 3 sense 2a)

Drag queens, who are traditionally male, dress in "drag" as female characters.

—Laura Wavra

For the past decade, (basically since RuPaul started Drag Race) traditional drag queens (ie, cis men performing as female characters) have been blowing up in the popular zeitgeist …

—Brittany Knupper

Drag is not simply female impersonation, but involves drag queens exaggerating femininity and drag kings exaggerating masculinity.

—Shannon Kelly

[Victoria] Sin is a female-bodied non-binary drag queen, examining how Western ideals of femininity are produced and consumed.

—Amrou Al-Kadhi

They are a black, non-binary drag queen with a beard in a part of the country that has a reputation for being anti-LGBTQ+.

—Bailey Shelton

Examples of drag queen in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

OUTtv pivoted to such originals as Call Me Mother (a drag queen competition), Sew Fierce (for drag wardrobe designers) and Drag House Rules (a satirical spin on the genre). —Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 16 June 2025

In Protest The Texas capital displayed an on-brand and creative protest, with drag queen performances and poetry slams while demonstrators took to the parks in scenes reminiscent of hippies in the 1970s protesting the Vietnam War. —Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 June 2025

Who’s playing at Sacramento Pride Festival? Headliners for the 2025 Sacramento Pride Festival include drag queens Shea Coulee, Daya Betty and Roxxxy Andrews and hip-hop duo Flyana Boss. —Veronica Fernandez-Alvarado, Sacbee.com, 12 June 2025

Dance with a big, lascivious drag queen and post it. —David Browne, Rolling Stone, 11 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1941, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for drag queen

• acrolein
• adenine
• alkylene
• aniline
• anthracene
• aquiline
• asphaltene
• atlantean
• atrazine
• butadiene
• butylene
• caesarean